LOCKE, Matthew, (uncle of Francis Locke, and great-great-great-grandfather of Effiegene
(Locke) Wingo),
a Representative from North Carolina; born in the north of Ireland in 1730;
immigrated to the United States and located in Rowan County, N.C.; engaged in transportation by
wagon; treasury commissioner of the colony of North Carolina in 1771; elected a member of the
safety committee of Rowan County on August 8, 1774, and of the committee of secrecy, intelligence,
and observation of Rowan County on September 23, 1774; member of the Provincial Congress at
Hillsboro, N.C., and Johnston Court House in 1775; served as paymaster of troops in the Salisbury
District in 1775; member of the Colonial Congress at Halifax in 1776; delegate to the state
constitutional convention in 1776; member of the state house of commons 1777-1781; brigadier
general of North Carolina troops during the Revolutionary War; served in the state senate in 1781 and
1782; again a member of the state house of commons 1783-1792; delegate to the state constitutional
convention in 1789 called to ratify the Federal Constitution and voted against ratification; elected as an
Anti-Administration candidate to the Third Congress and reelected as a Republican to the Fourth and
Fifth Congresses (March 4, 1793-March 3, 1799); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1798 to
the Sixth Congress; engaged as a planter and was an extensive landowner; died in Salisbury, Rowan
County, N.C., September 7, 1801; interment in the Thyatira Churchyard, near Salisbury, N.C.